Understanding
by Holly The Future Author
Summary: Modern Taang. Toph didn't want to be stuck at her uncle's house with her parents and so many other drunk adults. So she brings her best friend of ten years: Aang!


**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or the upcoming movie The Last Airbender. All of the rights belong to Nickelodean, the creators of the show, and the director and the producors of The Last Airbender.**

**This is just a modern Taang oneshot that I thought up of last night at random. Might add onto it if I can't fit everything in one chapter. Review plzz**

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"Toph, Aang, why don't you two go to bed?"

The two young teenagers knew that this meant that the adults didn't want them awake while they got wasted out of their heads. They were on vacation, but they thought that they were going to be a little more kind to the two youngest ones that are staying in the house. Everyone but Toph's mother were already very drunk, all sitting at a poker table in the kitchen with large clouds of smoke surrounding them. There was money, snacks, ash trays, money and cards scattered throughout the table. There were eight adults (all relatives to Toph) playing yet another round of poker. About five others were wandering around the rest of the kitchen; either getting more drinks for everyone or visiting with someone else, waiting their turn back in the game. The number of men and women were mostly split evenly because they all arrived in couples. Toph didn't want to be alone during this long-going vacation with no one to be with her around her age during Spring Break, so she brought along her best friend of ten years: Aang. Her parents agreed to this decision because he also knew almost everyone in the house as if it was his family as well, considering that he was adopted.

Toph's mother, Lao Bei Fong, was tipsy enough to not have it cross her mind to remind the two teenagers to sleep in their seperate rooms. There was only two bedrooms in the whole house, and a pull-out couch in the living room. The living room was occupied with even more partiers. Aang was given the guest room, and Toph had to sleep in her uncles bedroom (whom was the owner of this house), much to her non-liking. The mattress was a water bed, which was basically the opposite of her favorite element.

"Okay," they both agreed, putting common sense into their own hands. At the same time, they turned around and walked their way through the living room, avoiding eye contact with the crazy couples dancing to loud music that they didn't recodnize, and into the only hallway in the house. If you kept walking straight, you would be in the bathroom. To the left was Aang's current bedroom, and to the right was Toph's. They expected it to be slightly quieter in this part of the house, assuming that it was cleared out of all drunk partiers.

"Goodnight, Toph," Aang said. The typical thing to do would be to wrap his arms around her, but the situation that they were in was messing with their minds. He thought that it would be awkward - especially if they brought too much attention from the people in the living room. Aang could see them from where he was standing, so they must see him.

"Goodnight, Aang," she replied, feeling dissapointed with the lack of affection. Toph only had to take one step to the right to have the tip of her nose touch the white, old fashioned door. Her head was low, her eyes were staring at her unkempt feet. (She was running around bare-footed all day outside. It brought her flashbacks of the only fun that she had today, which was being with Aang at the park that was down the road. She didn't bother to wear shoes for the trip.) She felt exhausted from waking up so early in the morning and doing so much during the day. It was well into the night.

She gripped the old doorknob. It took more then a twist to make it open the door. She swore that a few bolts must be missing from the door hinge - the sight that she saw when she lifted her head stunned her. This could not be happening. This was supposed to be her bedroom!

Toph yelped in startlement.

BOOM! She slammed the door shut.

"Toph, are you okay?" Aang's voice ringed in her ear. She felt a sense of comfortness to know that she was not the only child stuck in this house like she was in previous years.

Toph didn't care if the other people saw them. She threw herself into him. She about had it here.

"What happened?"

"Those people are. . . are _doing it_ in there!"

The two of them parted, and Aang spoke. "Here, why don't you come in my room?"

"We're not aloud to-"

"Come on, do you really think anyone in this house cares at this point?" Aang shot a daring look at the people in the living room. "And it's not like we're gonna do anything!"

The guest room door creaked opened. The two young teenagers stepped inside the guest room. When the door shut, the light clicked on. It was a simple room that any guest would be staying in if they were in the same dilemna that these two were in. The walls were plain with a closet full of junk in the corner of the room. To their right, there stood an old, dusty desk where there was a broken T.V. and a picture of Toph's uncle during one of his fishing trips (he was smiling, holding up a rather large Walleye in a simple motorboat. The picture frame resembled a fishing net with sea stars and seaweed). The bed took up most of the space in the room. The mattress was simply one of those air mattresses that you blew up when you were out camping in a tent for more then a week. Regular green bed sheets were wrapping it just for their own visit, completed with a tan blanket with an old quilt on top. The four pillows looked just as old as his uncle. Two of them contained feathers on the inside with sharp ends to it that stuck out of its case.

Aang's way of changing into pajamas was merely removing his t-shirt. What was left was a white tank top and basketball shorts.

Toph was in jean shorts, and a green baby doll shirt with a camisaul under it. She sighed, thinking that this was going to be what she had to sleep in for the night. Just another thing that she had to deal with this weekend.

She heard the sound of a zipper. She looked at the end of the bed to see Aang rummaging through his suitcase. Suddenly, another pair of shorts were thrown at her head, blinding her for a moment.

"You can put them on, I'm turned around," he told her.

Being paranoid from the whole experience staying at this house, she nervously stripped of her shorts. She felt her hands shaking when trying to undo the button and zipper. Aang's shorts were much easier to slip on. They fit her well. The only thing doubting her was the length of the shorts. Nevertheless, they were more then acceptable to use as sleepwear.

"Can you turn the light off?" he asked. Aang was already slipping into the covers on the opposite side of the bed from where she was standing. She came to realize that she hadn't moved from the doorway ever since she had entered. The light switch was immediately above the picture frame to the right of her.

Before killing the lights, she picked up her jean shorts and threw them across the room. They landed on top of Aang's suitcase. She didn't remember him moving it from the end of the bed to the floor. Everything was going so fast. It had to be from her panicking.

Toph flipped the light switch. For a moment it looked like the room was pitch black until their eyes adjusted to the small light travelling from the lonely window about Aang's suitcase. The moon was excessively bright, and so were the stars to match it. They were stuck in this room all night. She sulkingly set her behind at the edge of the bed. Her weight sunk the side of the bed so violently that Aang was raised more then a few inches.

"Not another water bed!" she complained.

"It's not a water bed, it's an air mattress," he explained.

"Air sucks almost as much as water does," Toph puffed.

_Boom, boom, boom boom._

"That music is really loud," she stated.

"It's been that loud all night."

"How am I ever gonna sleep with that fricken noise!"

"Toph!"

Toph looked over her shoulder with a dirty look on her face.

"Calm down," he breathed. "You don't have to go to bed if you want. I'm not that tired either, actually."

"So what do you suggest that we do all night, throw our own party?"

"Well, maybe if you lay down then you might feel tired enough to fall asleep?" Toph could only see Aang's outline, but she could tell by his tone of voice that he had a cheesy grin upon his face. It was followed by a square in his shoulders. She could only tell that he was laying on his side, resting his elbow on one of the feathery pillows. It made her sick to think that her family didn't give a little more effort into giving them a suitable bedroom. The bedroom across the hallway wasn't any different from when her uncle was sleeping in it.

With all of those thoughts in her head, she still copied Aang's actions and slipped into the covers.

"Do you feel tired yet?"

"Do _you_ feel tired?" she sent back.

"Not at all. . ."

"Then why are we laying here?"

Even though she asked him that question, she knew the answer more then he did. Both of them had the same views on what was going on outside of the guest room. They did not want to go back out there. This room didn't fulfill all of its job of shutting them from the happenings, but half was enough for them.

"I can't wait until we go to Michigan's Adventure," Aang brought up, wanting to change the subject to a lighter note. She took the shuffling of the mattress being Aang rolling onto his back as well.

"Yeah," she agreed, "At least that's one thing to look forward to."

There was a moment of silence in the room. It was quiet enough to hear everything that was going on in the rest of the house. They heard the loud _boom, boom, boom_'s again from the huge stereo in the living room. There was the jingling of money from the kitchen and clinging of beer cans and wine glasses. Some people were cheering, some were singing along to the music currently playing, a couple would applaud at random every few moments, and Toph swore that she heard something from the other bedroom.

"You know what we should do?" she asked, desperately wanting to break the silence.

"Hm?"

"We should ditch my parents when we get there. It would just be the two of us."

"You're a genius, Toph." No sarcasm intended.

"We could go to the waterpark together, play the cheesy games and win little trinckets as awards, ride Shivering Timbers over and over again until we puke -" She heard a spell of laughter come from the other side of the bed. Toph shook up and down from his giggling.

"Every time you laugh, the bed shakes me around like crazy!" she informed. This only made him laugh harder.

"Aang, I sware to god-"

"What are you gonna do this time?"

She rolled over to her other side to face Aang. On the inside, she was laughing, but she didn't want to show it on the outside. She wanted to be stubborn like a rock, but sometimes it was hard for her with this guy.

After listening to more of his laughter, she slowly crept up over him, eventually leaning half of her body on him.

"Come on, what are you gonna do?"

"I'll tell you what I'm gonna do!" she hissed through her gritted teeth. Aang waited, but she was frozen in place. She was staring at him with a star-struck look on her face. Her mouth hung opened halfway. He could feel her warmth breath brush against his face, where he started to feel blood pumping through extra rapidly.

Their lips locked. It was mutual.

Now, he understands why they weren't aloud to be in the same room together at night.


End file.
